Britain’s Legendary Jump Jet and the Untold Story of the Falklands War

Harrier 809

From one of the leading voices in aviation non-fiction, and the bestselling author of VULCAN 607, the untold story of the Falklands War and the iconic 809 Squadron. Perfect for fans of SPITFIRE.

A story of skill, courage and imagination that resembles a miniature Battle of Britain ...  a military adventure, written with expertise, a tale of initiative, skill and courage, of pushing beyond the rules ... A thrilling account

Harrier 809 is a truly insightful study of this iconic British aircraft at war, and a tremendous account of the personal experiences of those who flew it in battle. By turns exciting, moving and enlightening; Rowland White has crafted yet another brilliant account of aerial warfare.

JOHN NICHOL, BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF SPITFIRE

Rowland White has scored again. Harrier 809 reads like a fast-paced military adventure novel only better because every word is true. White has brought us an up-close, inside-the-cockpit saga of a band of heroes in the Falklands air war. Riveting.

Set against the broader context of the Falklands War, Harrier 809 brings the squadron’s story to life in fine and highly readable style.

Deeply researched and written with Rowland White's trademark brio, Harrier 809 is the thrilling story of the ‘forgotten' Sea Harrier squadron of the Falklands War, one that arrived late to the party yet played a key role in Britain’s unlikely victory. A superb book.

This is utterly brilliant: a fantastically exciting book about those amazing Harrier jets in the Falklands War but so much more besides. White has a richly drawn cast of unforgettable characters ...  this really does read like the best kind of thriller. His best book yet.

Utterly thrilling and totally absorbing.  White conveys brilliantly the spirit of a great aircraft - and the men who flew it

Rowland White has done it again! A compelling, fast-paced narrative that thrusts us into a fascinating cockpit-view of the Falklands War. Harrier 809 provides a true window into a conflict that shaped the modern path of Argentina and the United Kingdom; a "must read" for serious military aviation enthusiasts and historians alike!

A compelling narrative, brought to life through vivid personal accounts and told in the author's usual lucid style

White writes narrative history like a novelist ... a story of politics, invention, determination and courage.

You do get what's on the rather stylish tin; it is a pacy and thrilling read...Taken with his Vulcan 607, to which this book is essentially a sequel, Rowland White has written a fine popular history of the air war for the Falklands

Rowland White is the author of five critically acclaimed works of aviation history: Vulcan 607, Phoenix Squadron, Storm Front, Into the Black, and most recently Harrier 809, as well as a compendium of aviation, The Big Book of Flight. Born and brought up in Cambridge, he studied Modern History at Liverpool University. In 2014 he launched Project Cancelled to produce apparel inspired by the best in aviation, space and other cool stuff. Find it at projectcancelled.com 
 
For more information on Rowland White and his books visit his website at rowlandwhite.com or find him on Twitter at @rowlandwhite

'Utterly brilliant: a fantastically exciting book... This really does read like the best kind of thriller. His best book yet' 
James Holland, author of Normandy '44 
 
April 1982. Argentina invades the Falkland Islands. 
In response, Britain despatches a naval task force. Eight thousand miles from home, its fate hinges on just twenty Sea Harriers against the two hundred-strong might of the Argentine Air Force. 
 
The odds against them are overwhelming. 
The MoD's own estimates suggest that half the Harriers will be lost in the opening days of the conflict. They need backup. Within three weeks 809 Naval Air Squadron is reformed, trained and heading south, ready for war. 
 
Not since World War Two had so much been expected of such a small band of pilots.

The Storming Bestseller from the Author of Harrier 809

SAS: Storm Front

A military history classic from the bestselling author of Vulcan 607 and Phoenix Squadron

Catapulting us from the cockpits of heavily armed, low-level attack jets to the beating heart of elite Special Forces soldiers under siege, Storm Front tells this epic story as only the author of Vulcan 607 can. It's as vivid and compelling as the best adventure thriller, and a fitting tribute to a small band of men who became heroes

Gripping, revealing and extraordinarily well-researched, Storm Front is a riveting new account of a little known, but crucial war. Combining page-turning military action in the air and on the ground with a clear-sighted understanding of the big picture it brings to life the campaign in Oman more vividly than any other book I've read

The best account I've ever read of this legendary battle. Takes you right to the heart of the action

This is a rare insight into the battle that defined the modern SAS. Storm Front is the best book you will read this year

I loved Storm Front. A period of history - and more particularly a single shining moment - that has been obscured by myth and legend. Here is the truth of it all at last in all its spine-tingling, spine-straightening glory

Exceptionally, writers appear, like Antony Beevor in Stalingrad and his other books, who manage to convey the picture of a campaign as a whole with the real drama experienced by the individual soldiers. Rowland White is such an author who combines the ability of a thriller writer with the historian's well researched accuracy

This gripping, page-turner of a book switches from action on the ground to that in the air more vividly than any I have read. It comes highly recommended

A gripping account of the events leading up to the battle, the fighting, and the aftermath

____________________ 
 
‘As vivid and compelling as the best adventure thriller, and a fitting tribute to a small band of men who became heroes’ ANDY MCNAB 
 
‘Gripping, revealing and extraordinarily well-researched, this is a riveting new account of a little known but crucial war’ SIR RANULPH FIENNES 
____________________ 
 
Dawn. 19 July 1972. A force of nearly three hundred heavily armed, well-trained guerrillas launches a surprise attack on the small fishing village of Mirbat. All that stands in their way is a troop of just nine SAS, aided only by an elite band of fighter pilots overhead. 
 
Two years earlier a Communist rebellion had threatened the Arabian Peninsula, in the strategically critical Sultanate of Oman. Following a covert intelligence mission, 22 SAS deployed their largest ever assault force against the rebels. 
 
But this was to be a bitter and hard-fought campaign culminating the Battle of Mirbat which would become a defining moment for the Regiment. Their heroism that day would remain part of the SAS legend for ever.

Into the Black

The electrifying true story of how the first flight of the Space Shuttle nearly ended in disaster

A spellbinding account of the first flight of the Space Shuttle, one of the great technological developments of the late 20th century

On 12th April 1981 a revolutionary new spacecraft blasted off from Florida on her maiden flight. NASA’s Space Shuttle Columbia was the most advanced flying machine ever built – the high watermark of post-war aviation development. A direct descendant of the record-breaking X-planes the likes of which Chuck Yeager had tested in the skies over the Mojave Desert, Columbia was a winged rocket plane, the size of an airliner, capable of flying to space and back before being made ready to fly again. She was the world’s first real spaceship. 
 
On board were men with the Right Stuff. The Shuttle’s Commander, moonwalker John Young, was already a veteran of five spaceflights. Alongside him, Pilot Bob Crippen was making his first, but Crip, taken in by the space agency after the cancellation of a top secret military space station programme in 1969, had worked on the Shuttle’s development for a decade. Never before had a crew been so well prepared for their mission. 
 
Yet less than an hour after Young and Crippen’s spectacular departure from the Cape it was clear that all was not well. Tiles designed to protect Columbia from the blowtorch burn of re-entry were missing from the heatshield. If the damage to their ship was too great the astronauts would be unable to return safely to earth. But neither they nor mission control possessed any way of knowing. 
 
Instead, NASA turned to the National Reconnaissance Office, a spy agency hidden deep inside the Pentagon whose very existence was classified. To help, the NRO would attempt something that had never been done before. Success would require skill, pinpoint timing and luck … 
 
Drawing on brand new interviews with astronauts and engineers, archive material and newly declassified documents, Rowland White, bestselling author of Vulcan 607, has pieced together the dramatic untold story of the mission for the first time. Into the Black is a thrilling race against time; a gripping high stakes cold-war story, and a celebration of a beyond the state-of-the-art machine that, hailed as one of the seven new wonders of the world, rekindled our passion for spaceflight. 
 
*With a foreword by Astronaut Richard Truly* 
 
‘Beautifully researched and written, Into the Black tells the true, complete story of the Space Shuttle better than it’s ever been told before.’ 
Colonel Chris Hadfield, former Astronaut and Space Station Commander 
 
‘Brilliantly revealed, Into the Black is the finely tuned true story of the first flight of the Space Shuttle Columbia. Rowland White has magnificently laid bare the unknown dangers and unseen hazards of that first mission … Once read, not forgotten.’ 
Clive Cussler

Vulcan 607

The dramatic account of the last British bomber raid - the long-range attack on Stanley airfield that opened the Falklands War.

Exciting and breathtakingly pacy...This is exactly how modern history should be written

Gripping, endlessly fascinating detail. I read the book in one sitting: it is an utterly compelling war story, brilliantly written

A masterwork of narrative history. Brilliantly described, the story of an impossible British mission is a compelling one; it's telling long overdue

Big heavy bombers. Proper old-fashioned heroism. And triumph of ingenuity over limited funding. So far as I'm concerned, it has the lot and to cap it all it reads like fiction when it's actually fact. I more than enjoyed it, it could have been written specially for me

Exceptional...Written like the very best thriller, it draws the reader into the exclusive world of the combat crew in a unique and truly gripping way

Vulcan 607 deserves to become an aviation classic

One helluva great flying story. The gripping narrative reads like a suspense thriller, yet every word is true

Absolutely riveting ... takes you right into the planning rooms and cockpits ... Don't miss this one!

Vulcan 607 grips like a two-spar fin torsion box structure, whatever your gender

Rowland White tells this splendid story with panache

It was to be one of the most ambitious operations since 617 Squadron bounced their revolutionary bombs into the dams of the Ruhr Valley in 1943 . . . 
 
April 1982. Argentine forces had invaded the Falkland Islands. Britain needed an answer. And fast. 
 
The idea was simple: to destroy the vital landing strip at Port Stanley. The reality was more complicated. The only aircraft that could possibly do the job was three months from being scrapped, and the distance it had to travel was four thousand miles beyond its maximum range. It would take fifteen Victor tankers and seventeen separate in-flight refuellings to get one Avro Vulcan B2 over the target, and give its crew any chance of coming back alive. 
 
Yet less than a month later, a formation of elderly British jets launched from a remote island airbase to carry out the longest-range air attack in history. At its head was a single aircraft, six men, and twenty-one thousand-pound bombs, facing the hornet’s nest of modern weaponry defending the Argentine forces on the Falkland Islands. There would be no second chances . . .

HMS Ark Royal, Britain's last Topguns and the untold story of their most dramatic mission

Phoenix Squadron

The dramatic true story of Britain's last Top Guns and their most extraordinary mission, from the bestselling author of Vulcan 607

Aircraft carriers, jet fighters and a crisis on the other side of the world. Who could ask for more? It takes an obscure corner of British military history and weaves a story as gripping as any Tom Clancy thriller. It's completely riveting

From the cockpit of a fighter jet to the violently pitching deck of an aircraft carrier at night, Rowland White combines pulse-pounding tension with riveting detail. If only all military history was written like this...

[A] page-turning thriller of a book... White's obvious passion infuses every page and is highly infectious, while the level of detail should send any budding Tom Clancy rushing to the bookshops

Reads like a Patrick Robinson or Tom Clancy novel...This is a cracking read

A gutsy, you-are-there true story that throbs with the sound and fury of carrier operations. Military history as it ought to be told

Written in breathless prose that gives it the feel of fiction... A well-researched yarn

A remarkable story told with skill and dedication... I enjoyed it. And I learned a lot

A true story that reads like a Tom Clancy novel

Clearly states the case for naval aviation in our uncertain age. An aircraft carrier loaded with fighter bombers is still the big stick...

January 1972: the tiny outpost of British Honduras is threatened with imminent invasion by battle-hardened, US-trained Guatemalan paratroops. Britain's response must be immediate and decisive. But there is only one deterrent the government can offer: HMS Ark Royal, once the Navy's most powerful warship, now a white elephant on the verge of being scrapped. 
 
To save the small colony, she must launch a pair of Buccaneer fighter bombers on an unprecedented long-range mission. But first the old carrier must make a high-speed, 1,500 mile dash across the Atlantic towards the Gulf of Mexico. The odds of arriving in time are very slim indeed... 
 
Drawing on extensive first-hand accounts and previously unseen, classified documents, Rowland White has pieced together one of the most audacious and thrilling missions of post-war British military history.

Rowland White

A captivating history ... White used the history of these operations to weave stories of fortitude and courage into the story of a great machine

This is history as it should be written: adrenaline-charged, exciting, impeccably and painstakingly researched with a cast of vividly-drawn characters. Riding through it is among the greatest, most extraordinarily brilliant aircraft of them all: the Mosquito. One of the most gripping works of history I’ve ever read

Wonderful detail, intricate research and most importantly, powerful & moving human testimony, ensure the reader is gripped from the first page to the last by this incredible story

Believe the plaudits - Mosquito is a wonderful tome ... an addictive, moving and tenaciously researched tale ... his best book to date

No dry history, Mosquito reads like a thriller, not just based on fact, but factual in every detail ... this is hard to put down ... Unreservedly recommended

White's engaging style has the reader hanging on every line. It's like the best adventure stories except this one is the real thing

The pace at which White's narrative runs along and the skill with which he ties together the many strands of his chosen story, are exceptional ... an excellent read, unreservedly recommended

White immerses the reader in the action from the first page ... a must read

Weaving together the story of its evolution with vivid accounts of the crews that flew it and the Special Operations Executive on the ground, Mosquito is both a tribute to the finest aircraft Britain produced during the war and a page-turning thriller about its use as the world’s first precision aerial weapon

Tom Petch, author of Speed Aggression Surprise: The Secret Origins of the SAS

Excellent ... provides thrilling accounts

Superb ... It is in tales of daring raids that this book excels, with his gift for vivid description, the author goes to the pulsating heart of the action ... a gripping narrative

This book does the Mosquito's memory proud ... Superb

Thrilling ... A multi-layered, painstakingly assembled narrative ... Mosquito is an instant classic

With his usual deft touch and highly readable style White weaves together the stories ... a fascinating insight into one of the aircraft's most dramatic episodes

A tremendous book ... can't recommend it more highly

Remarkable and moving ... the important parts of the tale of the development of the "Wooden Wonder" emerge subtly from from a very human story ... White conjures well - as he did in Vulcan 607 - the spirit of the Air Force at the time ... the book is strikingly relevant

Exciting and breathtakingly pacy...This is exactly how modern hitory should be written

I more than enjoyed it - it could have been written specially for me

An utterly compelling war story, brilliantly written

The RAF's Legendary Wooden Wonder and its Most Extraordinary Mission

'Captivating' Daily Telegraph 
'Stunning' James Holland 
'Superb' Daily Express 
'Wonderful' John Nichol 
'Remarkable' RAF News 
_________________________________Built of lightweight wood, powered by two growling Rolls-Royce Merlin engines, impossibly aerodynamic, headspinningly fast and armed to the teeth, the de Havilland Mosquito was the war-winning wonder that should never have existed: the aircraft the RAF didn't think it wanted then couldn't do without. 
 
Flying on operations barely eighteen months after a single prototype was ordered off the drawing board, it was the answer to its pilots' prayers: a stunningly versatile warplane capable of leaving the Luftwaffe in its wake to attack when and where the enemy was least expecting it. 
 
Excelling as a spyplane, night-fighter and pathfinder for Bomber Command's heavies the Mossie's reputation was cemented by a series of daredevil bombing raids across occupied Europe, including on Berlin itself, where only surprise, speed and precision could ensure success. 
 
So when Churchill's top secret Special Operations Executive needed to destroy the Gestapo HQ in the centre of downtown Copenhagen to prevent a devastating Nazi last stand that might prolong the war for many months, there was only one machine for the job. 
 
This is the story of that legendary aircraft told through that one impossible mission. 
 
Like Rowland White's previous books, Mosquito is an unputdownable mix of utterly compelling storytelling, incredible human stories and fascinating technological detail, which sheds never-before-told light on a pivotal mission that helped bring the war to its bloody and brutal close. 
_________________________________ 
 
Praise for Mosquito 
 
’10/10' Helen Fry 
'Excellent ... provides thrilling accounts' The Past 
'A brilliant read' Army Rumour Service Book Club 
'A triumph' Damcasters podcast 
'A tremendous book ... can't recommend it more highly' We Have Ways podcast 
'An addictive, moving and tenaciously researched tale ... his best book to date' Flypast 
'Mosquito reads like a thriller... Unreservedly recommended' Aviation Historian 
'It's like the best adventure stories except this one is the real thing' Best of British 
'A fascinating insight into one of the aircraft's most dramatic episodes' History of War 
'White immerses the reader in the action from the first page ... a must read' Flight International 
'Thrilling... A multi-layered, painstakingly assembled narrative... an instant classic' Warships IF

Rowland White

Praise for Mosquito

A captivating history ... White used the history of these operations to weave stories of fortitude and courage into the story of a great machine

This is history as it should be written: adrenaline-charged, exciting, impeccably and painstakingly researched with a cast of vividly-drawn characters. Riding through it is among the greatest, most extraordinaril ...

10/10

A captivating history ... White used the history of these operations to weave stories of fortitude and courage into the story of a great machine

This is history as it should be written: adrenaline-charged, exciting, impeccably and painstakingly researched with a cast of vividly-drawn characters. Riding through it is among the greatest, most extraordinaril ...

10/10

A captivating history ... White used the history of these operations to weave stories of fortitude and courage into the story of a great machine

This is history as it should be written: adrenaline-charged, exciting, impeccably and painstakingly researched with a cast of vividly-drawn characters. Riding through it is among the greatest, most extraordinaril ...

10/10

Books by Rowland White

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